Too Good To Be True

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (CN) – Two men claim they were bilked of $115,000 by Austin and Zachary Hurst, who assured them that by investing in a “viral marketing” scheme called My Green Circle — which they explained with a blue pyramid — the two investors would within six months have 33 million customers and be grossing $254 million a month.

The defendants – which include MGC LLC and Hurst Consulting – said the business My Green Circle would sell a 30-minute DVD about itself, Plaintiffs, the sole members of plaintiff D&K Ventures, say the Hursts promised them they would get $1.50 for each $12.99 DVD they sold to “downstream” customers. The Hursts allegedly promised that for $115,000 the plaintiffs would get a 2% share in the companies, “which were in the organizational and development stage.” The product was supposedly “a unique and proprietary web-based system … an online company that promoted a ‘DVD that teaches viewers about viral marketing.'” The plaintiffs say that the defendants gave them another pitch with “newfound information” that claimed that the original pitch actually underestimated their projected net income by $75 million, and that after 6 months they should have 267 million customers – nearly 90% of the population of the United States – and that their monthly income, accordingly, would be more than $1 billion. The plaintiffs are represented by McDowell Rice & Smith of Kansas City, Mo.